College Athletes Looking to Unionize

Looks like some of the football players at Northwestern have started to unionize:
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...

This is awesome. Seems like a great step forward to me.

I hope it works out. I'm interested to see what the final results of this will be.

Well, the university and NCAA are making plenty of money off them while slamming them with penalties if they accept any money/gift as compensation. Sounds like a good plan to me.

I hope they include acceptable guidelines for recruitment and compensation in their charter. They really need to encompass a smart all around solution rather than just "we want monies".

fangblackbone wrote:

I hope they include acceptable guidelines for recruitment and compensation in their charter. They really need to encompass a smart all around solution rather than just "we want monies".

From what was in the article, they do. They're also getting technical support from the United Steelworkers union. Their initial goals seem pretty reasonable to me.

From the article:

Huma said CAPA's goals are the same as those of the NCPA. The group has pressed for better concussion and other medical protections, and for scholarships to cover the full cost of attendance.

Having already successfully advocated for the creation of multiyear scholarships, it now would like those scholarships to be guaranteed even if a player is no longer able to continue for injury or medical reasons. The group has also called for a trust fund that players could tap into after their NCAA eligibility expires to finish schooling or be rewarded for finishing schooling.

Yeah, it's an incredibly straightforward and logical argument to get the foot in the door for a more established relationship.

Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, filed a petition in Chicago on behalf of football players at Northwestern University, submitting the form at the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.

I'm apparently a bigger nerd than I assumed, because this is the first thing I thought of:

IMAGE(http://decklinsdomain.org/Images/DsDC_DL3.jpg)